Today’s the birth date of my absolute favorite author by far, Mr. Ray Bradbury. He’s probably best known for his classic novels like Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles. But truly Ray was the master of the short story, and because I have a short attention span his words and my puny brain were a match made in literary heaven. Of course, it wasn’t just that his stories were short… it’s that they were magical. Ray could pack more into 10 pages than other authors could do in a thousand. Read “The Veldt” and get goose bumps. Read “The Sound of Thunder” and understand “the butterfly effect.” In “Perhaps We Are Going Away” he brilliantly foreshadows the plight of the Native Americans in just a  few pages, without any dialogue. If you’ve lost a parent or grandparent, I dare you to read “The Leave-Taking” and not get choked up.

So, in honor of Ray, the man who will live forever, a few of his quotes:

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

“Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream ever made or paid for in factories.”

“Jump and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.”